Music

It's been a longweek. I know I'm going to be spending Friday afternoon sitting on my front porch, drinking iced tea and blasting some summer jams.

That's exactly why I put together this playlist for y'all of my new favorite summer jams. Most of the songs are new to 2013 and most of the artists are women, but there are a couple awesome dudes and older tunes on there, too. ENJOY!

The history of electronic music arguably starts with the patenting of the theremin in 1928, and Clara Rockmore was there from its inception to champion the instrument as both an important technological and artistic advancement. This mix highlights the brilliant, creative women who make (and made) electronic music and their innovations in techniques, programs, and tools to make new sounds possible. Best with headphones.

A few weeks ago, I was at a party, talking to a guy I'd never met. I told him I work for a feminist magazine. He got very sincere.

"You're a feminist," he said. "Does that mean you hate men?"

This is a persistent myth. There are plenty of things in the world that hate men, but I'm not one of them. Instead of fearing feminism, dudes should fret over the genuine maneaters: Sharks. Tigers. Godzilla.

For this Friday's BitchTapes, I put together this playlist of songs about maneaters. Now, instead of having to counter the man-hating question with a reasoned response, I'll just press play.

The Shivas, a dreamy quartet of surf rockers from Portland, Oregon, released their third LP, WHITEOUT, on vinyl through K Records this month. We talked with drummer and vocalist Kristin Leonard about drumming, the band's record deal, and tales from tours.

Writer Jordannah Elizabeth wrote up a list of her five favorite black women musicians for Bitch this week. People loved the post and wanted more. So Jordannah put together a whole mixtape of Black women artists. Enjoy!

R&B/Soul mixtapes can be cheesy and predictable! I want to spice this mixtape up with songs from Black female musicians from different genres and eras. These amazing women had strong and influential careers and enormous talent! All of the tracks are thoughtful, empowering, sweet and emotionally penetrating, just like every strong and classy lady should be!

Being a Black, female music journalist, I have to admit that I've only written and published one article about a Black female musician in my entire career. Being an American journalist in general, it's very hard to be able to cover Black musicians that are not huge pop stars like Rihanna and Beyonce. I don't want to write about Rihanna and Beyonce! I want to write about women who paved the way for today's biggest African American female musicians.

Country music can be a hard place for women. Lyrics have women being drowned in rivers, abandoned as whores, or obsessed over as angels-in-the-flesh. From the beginning of the Nashville scene, husbands, managers, and music labels kept a tight grip on female performers' money and artistic freedom. In response to the systemic misogyny of popular country music, we give you this playlist that celebrates "putting the cunt back in country."

Kacey Musgraves is looking to change a mammoth, 44.6 million-albums-sold-last-year music machine from the inside out. And she's going to use pot, homosexuality, and atheism to do it. "EGADS!", one might say. "POT, HOMOSEXUALITY, AND ATHEISM?!" And then one might think for a moment. "No, wait. Those aren't that exciting anymore," one might realize. "Pfffft, Kacey Musgraves, nice try, with your 'controversial' singing music record. NEXT." But wait. How often do you hear about any of the above in a COUNTRY album? How often are small-town Texas and big-town Nashville starting those conversations? ZING! That's what I thought. Kacey Musgraves is a native of the former, and a product of the latter, and she's changing the genre that made her one song at a time.